to one another, they soon
destroy each other.

7. The worst sallows may be planted so near yet, as to be instead of
stakes in a hedge, and then their tops will supply their dwarfishness;
and to prevent hedge-breakers, many do thus plant them; because they
cannot easily be pull'd up, after once they have struck root.

8. If some be permitted to wear their tops five or six years, their
palms will be very ample, and yield the first and most plentiful relief
to bees, even before our abricots blossom. The hopping-sallows open, and
yield their palms before other sallows, and when they are blown (which
is about the _exit_ of May, or sometimes June) the palms (or
+olesikarpoi+ _frugiperdae_, as Homer terms them for their extream
levity) are four inches long, and full of a fine lanuginous cotton. Of
this sort, there is a _salix_ near Dorking in Surrey, in which the
_julus_ bears a thick cottonous substance. A poor body might in an
hour's space, gather a pound or two of it, which resembling the finest
silk, might doubtless be converted to some profitable use, by an
ingenious house-wife, if gather'd in calm evenings, before the wind,
rain and dew impair them; I am of opinion, if it were dry'd with care,
it might be fit for cushions, and pillows of chastity, for such of old
was the reputation of the shade of those trees.

9. Of these hopping sallows, after three years rooting, each plant will
yield about a score of staves, of full eight foot in length, and so
following, for use, as we noted above: Compute then how many fair
pike-staves, perches, and other useful materials, that will amount to in
an acre, if planted at five foot interval: But a fat and moist soil,
requires indeed more space, than a lean or dryer; namely, six or eight
foot distance.

10. You may plant setlings of the very first years growth; but the
second year they are better, and the third year, better than the second;
and the fourth, as good as the third; especially, if they approach the
water. A bank at a foot distance from the water, is kinder for them
than a bog, or to be altogether immers'd in the water.

11. 'Tis good to new-mould them about the roots every second, or third
year; but men seldom take the pains. It seems that sallows are more
hardy, than even willows and oziers, of which Columella takes as much
care as of vines themselves. But 'tis cheaper to supply the vacuity of
such accidental decays, by a new plantation, than to be at the charge of
di